Carlos – sketcher and tango-enthusiast – invited a few of us – Mónia, Luís and I – to attend the International Lisbon Tango Festival as live sketchers. To get the most tango neophytes possible, the Festival organized tango workshops on the week before, having instructors teach the very first steps of the Argentinian dance to participants. For us sketchers, these were welcome warm up sessions. In the bucolic scenery of the Palácio Pimenta, where the Museu da Cidade is housed, beginners clumsily and shyly shed their fears to the dancing floor, as the instructors told them about the significance and uniqueness of the embrace in tango.

Clumsily and shyly also describes how our sketching started. The scenery was overwhelming with detail, but the dancing should be the focus, so I struggled back and forth in detailing the natural back- and foreground. To describe the action and characters, I opted for silhouettes as it would help me explore the lighting of the scene, create the illusion of motion and also strip the dancers bare of casual clothing and visual characterization. This also allowed me to focus on body language and relationship in the dancing pairs – which is, after all, the main focus of tango.

These first three watercolors are exhibited in the antechamber of the main hall of Voz do Operário, together with Mónia’s, Carlos’ and Luís’ ones. During the Festival, more of them will join the showcase as we spend our next few evenings in the sweaty milongas of the dancing hall.